Fairy Tail: Darkness of Fiore
by Thunder Explosion
Summary: Alternate canon. After the X783 S-Class promotion trial, Natsu takes a mission by himself related to a dragon sighting. However, when he has gone missing for two months, Mira sends Gray to Hargeon to investigate a rumor that Salamander is there, when he meets a Celestial Wizard by the name of Lucy who wants to join Fairy Tail.
1. Chapter 1: Salamander, the S-Class Mage

**A/N: This is an alternate canon story and is rated M for a reason. Though there are none in this first chapter, there will be some very dark themes in this story along with moments of strong language and more than mild sexual content (although I will NOT be writing lemons, sorry if that disappoints anyone.) Anyway, this first chapter is set pre-anime and sets up the premises for the main story. Enjoy!**

**...**

Date: December 15th, X783

Location:Tenrou Island

It was time for the Fairy Tail S-Class promotion trials and Makarov had selected six participants this year; Natsu Dragneel, Cana Alberona, Freed Justine, Alzack Connel, Levy McGarden, and Max Alors. The six wizards respectively picked Happy, Loki, Bickslow, Bisca Mulan, Jet, and Warren as their partners. Of the six teams, only Natsu remained.

The first task was a tournament between teams to see which three would remain to face the second task. Natsu was victorious against Max, Cana had won her fight against Alzack, and Freed had defeated Levy.

The three remaining teams were tasked with being the first ones to slay the giant boar that was roaming the woods on the island. With Happy as his partner and Natsu's sense of smell, it made finding the beast a breeze. Taking it down wasn't a huge challenge for the duo either, as the monster's limited mobility allowed for Natsu and Happy to stay in the air and launch an aerial assault of fire magic.

With the beast taken down, Natsu reported back to the Master to find his final task. There were three paths that Makarov had chosen. One led to the beach, another through the jungle, and the last through the mountains. Each path led to an S-Class wizard who would examine the participant. Natsu chose the mountain path, which leads him to where we are now.

It was dark and a storm appeared to be brewing as Natsu faced off with his opponet within the confides of a steep canyon. Natsu was on his hands and knees, sweat pouring off of his body. He was covered in bruises and cuts along his entire torso, his vest being ripped apart due to the intense battle. A magic circle appeared underneath him as a beam of light shot upward through four more magic circles in the sky.

"Five Layer Magic Circle: Sacred Song!"

Natsu screamed out in agony as the spell hit him. His partner and best friend, a flying blue cat by the name of Happy, had long since been knocked out and was slouched against a wall of rock. Natsu stood up, feeling the rocky ground underneath his hands and feet dig in to his scarred flesh.

"You can always admit defeat you know" the man across from him said. His head and face were covered in a a cap and cloth that hid all his features save for his eyes and what appeared to be part of an intricate tattoo on the man's right cheek. The rest of his body was covered in a black cloak and bandages, so that none of his features showed. Natsu knew the man as Mystogan, an S-Class mage of Fairy Tail.

Natsu grit his teeth. "I don't know the meaning of the word defeat" he said as his body became enveloped in golden flames. His skin began to turn scaly and his eyes were pure white, losing signs that he ever had pupils. "I've made it this far, and I won't quit until I've become an S-Class wizard!"

This year's S-Class candidates and the S-Class wizards, along with Master Makarov, stood atop of the cliff, overseeing the battle. "Master, what's happening to him?" Erza asked as they all noticed the changes in Natsu.

"I've never seen him like that before" Cana gaped at the pink haired dragon slayer.

"Dragonforce" Makarov muttered in a barely audible whisper. 'He can activate it on his own? What sort of power is this?'

The ground began to shake from the sheer force of Natsu's flames as he charged at Mystogan. "Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" Natsu shouted as he began to unleash an onslaught of punches on the cloaked man. Mystogan expertly dodged most of them as Natsu continued to pick up speed in his blind fury. His fist finally connected with Mystogan's face as he sent the cloaked man reeling back. Mystogan stood up as he began to prepare his counter assault, but Natsu had backed off. "Fire Dragon Roar!" A laser of fire shot out at the man, leaving him no time to dodge.

"Three Layer Magic Circle: Mirror Water!" Mystogan tried to reflect the attack back at Natsu seeing as he had no time to dodge. However, Natsu's roar was so powerful that it broke through the reflection spell, hitting the wizard head on. Mystogan's outfit was charred but still intact as he was sent flying through the air and landed on his back, not getting back up.

Natsu took in sharp breaths of air as he tried to regain his stamina from the intense fight. He looked at his handiwork, the opposing mage flat on his back and he smiled to himself. "I did it" he whispered while taking in another breath of sharp air. He then proceeded to collapse on the ground face first.

...

When Natsu woke up again, he realized that he was in a makeshift bed on the ground as sunlight poured into his eyes. He sat up slowly to face all of his comrades staring at him. Makarov was the first to speak. "Natsu, you have shown tremendous strength and potential over the past couple of years, and those skills were put on display finely during the trials yesterday."

Mystogan then spoke, a rare feat for the man. "During our battle, you showed bravery, tenacity, and an undying will to succeed. You pass my test."

Natsu was so excited to hear those words that he almost couldn't control the fire pouring out of him. 'Is this really happening right now?'

Makarov spoke again. "Mystogan says you pass, so it is my pleasure to officially name you an S-Class wizard of Fairy Tail." The old man had a genuine smile on his face as he watched his child jump up and down like a little kid on Christmas.

"Alright! You hear that Happy? We're S-Class now! Wait till Ice Pick hears this!"

Most of the group mustered genuine smiles for their comrade. He was the heart and soul of the guild after all, and he deserved the title more than anyone. There were only a few who didn't flock to Natsu in this moment.

Mystogan simply began to walk back to the ship as he wasn't one for big gatherings such as this. Laxus frankly just didn't care. He gave a small nod to Natsu as a sign of respect and walked off.

Then there was Cana, who looked like she was about to bust out in tears. She was able to muster a fake smile for Natsu's sake, but she couldn't hold herself together for long. 'It looks like another year that just goes to show that I really don't deserve to be his daughter. Even Natsu made S-Class before me. It's probably for the best. He always liked Natsu better than me anyway.'

Then there was Erza. Unlike the other three, she was genuinely happy. She did feel like Natsu deserved the title of S-Class, and to see her childhood friend achieve the ranking made her smile. But she was very preoccupied. When Mystogan spoke, she realized that it was the first time that she ever heard his voice, and it sounded so damn familiar. She knew it from somewhere in her past, and she had to figure out who's voice it was. But now wasn't the time for that. Now was Natsu's time.

The guild members headed back to the ship one by one to return home to Magnolia.

...

Date: May 2nd, X784

Location: Fairy Tail Guild Hall, Magnolia

"Wow, you're already handling your third S-Class request Natsu. You're growing up so much" Mirajane beamed at him.

It was true though. Since Natsu had reached S-Class ranking, he had been working a lot less than what he used to. The pay for those missions were a lot better so he didn't have to work as much. Plus, he didn't have rent to pay like most of the members and he didn't run up a heavy bar tab like a lot of them either.

Natsu smiled at her and handed her the flyer so she could mark it in her book and fill out the paperwork. "Well I was gonna take a little break, but this one has to do with rumors of a dragon sighting. There's no way I could turn that down."

"Well good luck!"

Natsu waved and was out the door. Gray walked up to the bar. "Where's he off to?"

"Something about a dragon. I'm surprised, he didn't even take Happy with him" Mira said as she motioned to the blue exceed that was now sitting at a table listening to one of Elfman's rants about being a real man.

"That's unusual. You think it's Igneel?"

Mira sighed. "I'd like to think so, but I doubt it. After all, it's been almost seven years since Natsu's seen him. It's very unlikely that a job request about Igneel would just turn up."

Gray nodded. "Anyway, I have to get back to training so I can be promoted to S-Class this year. Flame freak is getting way too far ahead of me." And with that, he was off like a shot.

Mira shook her head to herself. 'Natsu becoming S-Class had really changed a lot around here. Him and Gray are still rivals but it's like they only used to compete with each other. Now they compete to make themselves better too.'

Cana then approached the bar with a flyer in her hand. "Off on another job Cana?"

"Yup, just stamp it and I'm off" she smiled at the barmaid. Mirajane did as she was told and Cana was off. Cana was another one who had changed ever since Natsu earned S-Class ranking. Cana had stopped drinking entirely; in fact, she was rarely at the guild period. Mira knew about her obsession with becoming S-Class, even though she wasn't exactly sure of her reasoning for it.

Mira went back to wiping her bar down. 'I wonder how much Natsu becoming an S-Class wizard is really going to change things around here?'

...

Date: May 6th, X784

Location: Unknown

Natsu had been hiking through the wilderness for three days after the train he was riding on took him to Clover Town. He thought that maybe with becoming S-Class he would finally be strong enough to overcome his motion sickness. Oh what a simple thought that was. If anything, the unlocking of dragonforce made it worse. Natsu was more than content with walking the rest of the way to the mountain after that train ride. Perhaps he should have taken Happy with him. Then he could've just flown up there.

Natsu looked up to the mountaintop. Supposedly this is where the dragon had been attacking villagers. It was very strange though, it seemed as though none of the villagers he talked to knew anything about what was going on. It was very suspicious indeed, and he hoped that this wasn't another situation of sucker bait.

'Igneel, where the hell are you? Don't tell me this is going to be another dead end.'

He was sick of chasing. It had been almost seven years since he'd last seen Igneel, and he had followed almost all his leads to the ends of Earthland. But each one turned up a dead end.

Natsu shook his head as he was close to the top. He had never even met the person that had requested this job be looked into, so he still had his suspicions. However, given the nature of the request, he had to look into it. Reaching the peak of the mountain, he was greeted with a familiar smell, followed by a familiar sight.

"Hello Salamander."

'Well shit' Natsu thought.

...

Date: July 5th, X784

Location: Fairy Tail Guild Hall, Magnolia

Gray walked into the guild hall during the afternoon hours after a long morning of training with Happy following close. He would never admit it, but he had grown quite fond of Natsu's cat. The two sat down at the bar in hopes to order some food before they went back to training. There really wasn't much else to do, seeing as most of his close friends in the guild, such as Erza, Cana, and Loki were all gone on jobs today.

Of course, Natsu was also gone; he had been missing for almost two months so Gray had no one to fight with. That was one more reason that he had been training so hard lately. He needed to kick Natsu's ass when he made it back to the guild. And for making him take care of that damn cat in his absence. Gray didn't really mind too much anymore, though hell would have to freeze over before he would admit that.

Mira made him a couple of subs and some grilled chicken and laid out a plate of raw fish for Happy to eat. Gray muttered a thanks and proceeded to devour his food. After about ten minutes, the two were about done when a voice from a conversation over reached his ears.

"You know, I heard a rumor that Salamander was running around in Hargeon" a man with big teeth and brown hair spoke.

"Yeah right. He left on that job dealing with that dragon a couple months ago. What the hell would he be doing there?"

"I have no clue. Like I said though, it's just a rumor I heard."

Gray was now sitting deep in thought, twirling the ice that remained in his glass of water. Happy gazed up at him with a sad expression. "Do you think it's him?" he asked.

Gray shook his head. "No clue cat."

Mira then approached him. "You know, you should go check it out. Maybe it is him. You never know."

Gray scoffed. "Yeah right. I don't care what that flaming idiot does."

"Gray!" Happy whined.

Mira smirked. "Well, you should go check it out anyway. And if it is him, then that means you can show him how much stronger you've gotten."

This got Gray going. The idea of beating the shit out of Natsu was enough to convince him to listen to Mira and head out to Hargeon and investigate. Thanks for the food Mira" he said as he stood up. "You coming cat?"

"Aye sir!"

And with that, the ice make wizard and flying cat set out for Hargeon, not knowing what awaited them there.

...

**A/N: Well there you have the introduction to the story. Hope everyone enjoyed it. Oh, and leave a review because they help keep me inspired!**

**Disclaimer: Put Fairy Tail right underneath Ferrari on the list of things that I don't own.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Fateful Encounter

**Date: July 6th, X784**

**Location: Hargeon**

A young blonde girl was walking through the port town of Hargeon, taking in every breath of ocean air that she could. It felt so nice to just relax and take a load off after being on the run for so long, but she knew that she had made her mind up to go visit the local magic shop once she got to this city. She let out a long sigh as she continued to search. Reaching down and touching the keys hanging on her belt steeled her resolve though. 'Maybe they'll have some gate keys and I can make a new friend' she thought as she began to hum a happy melody. "Ah, here we go" she said to herself as she entered what appeared to be a small shop.

She was greeted by a short old man as she began to look around the shop. She knew what she was looking for, but decided to browse around for a bit.

"See anything you like young lady" the shopkeeper asked her.

"Well I'm just browsing right now" she answered.

The old man held a thoughtful gaze for a moment before reaching down below his desk and pulling an object. "This here is a colors magic. With one spin on the wheel you can change the color of your clothes. It's perfect for a stylish young lass like yourself."

The girl's face dropped. "I already have one of those. What I'm really looking for are some powerful gate keys."

"Gate keys you say? Yes I believe I may have a couple here" he said, while pulling a small box off of the shelf behind him. "Sorry that there isn't more. This shop is aimed at the traveling mages more than anything. Most of the townsfolk can't use magic after all."

She looked at the silver keys in the box and none of them caught her eye as far as being strong keys. However. .

"Oh my God! Gate of the Canis Minor! I've always wanted one of these keys!"

The old man sweat dropped. "You know, that's not exactly a powerful key."

"I know but they're just so cute! How much is it?"

"20,000 Joule" the man replied.

"How much is it?" she repeated, pretending not to have heard the absurd amount of 20,000 that the shopkeeper had originally set for the key.

"I said, 20,000 Joule" he repeated.

The blonde let out a mental sigh. She knew what she had to do now. She leaned her body forward over the shop desk and used her arms to push her breasts together. She then began speaking in a much more sultry voice. "Is that how much it's really worth?" she asked while giving a playful wink.

After about twenty minutes of haggling:

"I can't believe that stupid shopkeeper only gave me a thousand Joules off! Is that all my sex appeal is worth?" She continued to whine and stomp along the sidewalk while plotting in her head all the ways she could get him back. The most promising one was to invite the old pervert to a young girls pool party and then stick her spirit Aquarius on him, but knowing her, she'd end up on the worst end of it. She was planning on continuing her musings, but a loud commotion up ahead caught her attention.

She looked around and saw a bunch of girls running toward the center of a plaza. She heard cries and shrieks of joy from them. "It's the famous fire mage!" "He's here?" "Wow we have to go see him now!" However, one phrase from an obnoxiously loud fangirl caught her attention. "Oh my God it's Salamander!"

"Salamander?" While she had never seen a picture of the man, she had heard about plenty of 'Salamander's' triumphs. She also heard a rumor that he went missing on a job a couple of months ago, so if he showed up here it would be a pretty big deal. "May as well go check it out" she muttered to herself.

As she approached the crowd of women gathered around the man, she started to notice that all the women around him were acting like they were in love with him. That was when she felt it. Her heart started to beat out of her chest uncontrollably and her head began to spin. 'Oh wow! Is this what love feels like? Or is it just cause he's a famous wizard? Either way, wow!' Her thoughts were out of her control now as she unknowingly fell victim to his charm spell just like the rest of the girls there. That is, until a voice broke her out of the trance.

"Salamander!" A boy a little taller than her with messy raven hair and dark eyes with a blue cat on his shoulder appeared, pushing past the crowd. His eyes locked with the blonde girl for a moment and she felt the hearts that had grown for the other wizard shatter in an instant.

The newcomer then turned his attention to the one being called Salamander by all the women in town. "Who the hell are you?"

'Salamander' did an anime fall as he felt like he was just embarrassed in front of all of his ladies. He quickly recovered though and tried to save face. "Well I'm sure that you've heard of Salamander before, haven't you? Here, I'll give you my autograph so you'll always remember me" he said as he went to sign a big piece of paper for him. However, the man was already walking away.

"We don't have time for this shit. Come on Happy."

"Aye sir" Happy said.

'A talking cat' she thought to herself? She didn't really think much past that point though as she watched the girls, still under the Salamander's charm spell, launch a vicious assault on the man and his cat. "Now now, go easy on him" Salamander said. "I'm hosting a party on my yacht tonight, and you all are invited!" He flashed his hand at all of them and she saw the ring on his finger. 'A charm spell?'

The group of girls cheered loudly as the man rode away on his fire carpet. As they dispersed, the blonde took her chance to walk over to the strange man and his cat. "Thanks for helping me out back there. That creep had all those girls under a charm spell back there. I'm Lucy." Lucy then extended her hand to the man who had helped her.

He took it and she helped him up. "I'm Gray" he said once he was standing. He then motioned to the cat that was with him. "This is Happy."

"Aye" he said, raising his paw up.

"Well thank you both for your help." She stood there for a second before speaking again. "Actually, if you guys are hungry I'd be willing to pay for lunch. I'd like to do something more to thank you after all."

Gray scratched his head. "Well I suppose since our lead turned out to be a dead end we could stop and eat. Although I feel kinda bad cause we weren't really trying to help you."

Happy showed no such remorse though. "Can we go somewhere where they serve lots of fish?"

...

Lucy sat in the diner very uncomfortably as she watched Gray and Happy mow through plate after plate worth of food. She was starting to regret offering them lunch as she was certain her wallet would be empty after this. "You know, the food isn't gonna get up and run away" she said, hoping that it would calm the two down. No such luck. "Gray and Happy, right?"

Both of them just nodded their heads at her as they continued to eat. "Anyway, I figured out that that sleezeball back there was using a charm spell to lure in young girls. Which he must have gone through a lot of trouble to get his hands on it because they've been banned for years. Anyway I might not look like it but I'm a wizard too."

"Really?" Gray asked while he and the cat continued to fill their faces.

"Yeah, but I haven't joined a guild yet or anything. Unfortunately you're not considered a full fledged wizard until you join a guild. I've heard that some of the more popular guilds are harder to get into and the guild I wanna join is the most popular one of all! Oh how I would love to be a Fairy Tail wizard. Then I could go on all sorts of cool jobs and adventures!"

"That's nice" Gray said.

"You talk a lot" Happy added.

Lucy's face suddenly changed demeanor. "Oh yeah, weren't you two looking for someone?"

"Yeah, his name is Natsu and he's been gone for awhile" Happy said.

"He often goes by the name of Salamander and we heard a rumor that he was running around in this town. So we came here to investigate. But it was probably just that scumbag that was using that charm spell earlier."

"Wait, you're friends with THAT Salamander?" Lucy asked.

"I wouldn't call him a friend" Gray muttered.

"Yup, he's my best friend!" Happy shouted.

"Wow, that's amazing that you two know such a famous wizard" Lucy said in awe. "So where did he go?"

Gray crossed his arms. "He left on some sort of stupid dragon hunt a couple months ago and hasn't come back yet. Now everyone we know is up in arms saying he got hurt or something."

"Huh? A dragon?"

"Aye" Happy confirmed. "He's looking for Igneel, a real live fire dragon."

"O..kay.. well anyway it was nice meeting you two. Thanks again for your help" Lucy said as she put some Joules on the counter and walked out.

...

Lucy sat on a park bench reading a copy of the new Sorcerer Weekly magazine. "Oh, Mirajane is the centerfold this week. If I was a member of Fairy Tail I could even meet her. That'd be amazing."

"Did you say Fairy Tail?"

"Gaah!" Lucy jumped as she instantly recognized the voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing much. I just wanted to personally invite you to my party on the yacht tonight. You said you wanted to join Fairy Tail, correct?"

Lucy's heart fluttered at the last part of what he said. Yeah she would love to join Fairy Tail. But something seemed off about this. "Yes, I really want to join Fairy Tail" she said as calmly as possible.

"Well, come to my party tonight and I'll put in a good word for you." And with that, he was off in a flash of fire.

"Fairy Tail, huh? Gray knows that you're not the real Salamander. He has to know something about Fairy Tail. Whether he's a member or not, I have to find him. He clearly has connections to Fairy Tail."

...

Darkness had overtaken Hargeon as Gray and Happy sat on the ledge of a balcony overlooking the harbor. "That has to be the fake Salamander's boat" Gray said as he could see the fancy yacht sailing out into the ocean. Voices filled the air as the two sat there watching. He could hear the girls saying something about the man being a member of Fairy Tail and built a quiet rage within him. "So he's posing as a member of Fairy Tail huh?"

He heard another voice behind him but payed it no mind as he watched the boat. He sat there for a second before he realized that the voice was calling out to him. "Lucy?"

She ran up to him panting. "Jeez Lucy, what happened to you?" Happy asked when she finally stopped by them. She was frantically trying to explain everything with several hand gestures but couldn't be understood by the two as she was talking so fast.

"Slow down Lucy. I can't understand you" Gray said, trying to calm the frantic blonde.

She let out a sigh as she continued from the beginning, slowing down this time. "He's using the name of a prestigious Fairy Tail mage to lure women. And I think he's up to something bad."

"Yeah we kind of figured that. So what do you wanna do?" Gray asked her.

"Well we should probably inform the council of what's going on."

Gray shook his head. "I really don't feel like dealing with the council right now. Besides, they'll probably take too long with their actions anyway. I say we just crash the party."

"Are you kidding me? There could be hundreds of people on board."

"So? You said you were a wizard right?" Gray asked and Lucy nodded. "Well then, let's go. Happy! Carry her."

"Aye sir" he said as he sprouted wings and grabbed Lucy.

Lucy looked dumbfounded for a second. "Okay, aside from the flying cat, how are you going to get there?"

Gray laughed. "I'm a wizard too. Ice Make Wings!" A pair of crystal wings made of ice appeared on his back as he began to fly toward the ship, with Happy and Lucy following close behind.

It was a short flight until the three crashed through the roof of the ship. Gray took advantage of the distraction to knock out most of the men that were on the ship. "Shit Bora, what are they doing here?" One of the men asked Salamander.

"Don't call me that! And let's take care of them quickly. We can't let anyone find out about what we're doing here."

Lucy began to tear up. "You people are using magic to commit crimes. You're taking advantage of innocent people. I'll never forgive you!"

Gray appeared to be in deep thought for a second, but was quickly snapped out of it by Bora's attack. "Ice make shield!" The ice stopped the fire and dissipated it.

"No way! My fire couldn't melt his ice?" Gray stripped off his top and faced his opponent down. That was when everyone noticed the mark on his chest.

"Fairy Tail" Lucy muttered under her breath.

"Fuck! This guy is the real deal" another nameless lackey yelled.

"Lucy. We need to get this ship back to the port now. These girls are in serious trouble if we don't" Gray said to her.

"I don't think so. This ship is on a one way track to Bosco" Bora said to them.

Lucy stood in shock for a second. But she couldn't freeze up. Not now. "I know a way. Happy, throw me into the water."

"What? That's crazy!" Happy shouted at her.

"Just trust me. Let's go. I trust you'll be okay Gray?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, remember?"

Lucy just smiled at his reply as Happy picked her up and led her outside. Once they were outside Happy proceeded to drop her in the water. Lucy reached for the keys on her belt and grabbed one of the golden ones. "Open, Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!"

"Fish!" Happy cheered when he saw the spirit.

"Not for you cat! Aquarius, can you bring that ship back to the harbor?"

"Tch" was all she said. Lucy and Happy gaped at her. "Oh come on" Lucy shouted. "Let's get one thing straight" Aquarius started "you are NOT the boss of me. I don't take orders from any wizard!"

"Look Aquarius, we really need your help here-"

"Oh shut up!" Aquarius shouted as she created a huge typhoon and sent both Lucy and the ship flying toward the port.

When they finally crash landed, Lucy and Happy observed the wreckage. A quarter of the town had been wiped out in the crash. "Thanks for the help, but did you have to wash us away with it?"

"Oh. My bad. I didn't mean to get the ship" she said bluntly. "Don't summon me for a week. I'm going on a vacation with my boyfriend. And he's hot" she said as she disappeared into a mist, heading back to the spirit world. Lucy just shook her head at her spirit's antics.

"Wow Lucy, your magic is really messed up" Happy deadpanned.

"I'm already sick of you cat."

Happy was getting ready to say something in retort, but she was interrupted by the crew aboard the ship pouring out into the street due to the wreckage. "What did you do you little bitch? You're gonna pay for that" a random guy said.

"First you insult me, then you reject my offer, now you're wrecking my boat? You fucked up bad missy" Bora said as he approached her. He launched an attack at her but it never hit as his fire connected with a shield made of ice.

"No, you're the ones who fucked up bad" Gray said as he launched his arrows at them. "Ice make prison" he said as he trapped the wizards in a cage of ice. "You think you can go around hurting innocent people by sullying the name of Fairy Tail. I'll make sure that you people never pull a stunt like this again."

"Oh yeah. I'll melt all your stupid ice" Bora shouted as he gathered a huge ball of fire and smashed Gray's prison into pieces. However, Gray was ready as he had a huge cannon hoisted above his arm. "Ice Make Cannon!"

A huge ball of ice was fired and shot into the crew, sending all of them flying in different directions. Bora was sent flying straight into the bell tower, the sound reverberating throughout the whole city. Lucy looked around at the scene and was amazed. However, "Don't you think you went a little overboard?"

Gray sheepishly laughed as he observed the destruction. "Yeah I guess so." The two shared a relaxing moment until the sounds of armored footsteps could be heard coming toward them in the distance. "Shit, the army is here." He grabbed Lucy's hand as he took off toward the outskirts of town. "Come on Happy!"

"Wait, where are we going?" Lucy shrieked through the chaos.

"Well, you said you wanted to join the Fairy Tail guild didn't you?" he looked back at her as they continued to run. After all this, she couldn't believe that this was really happening. She returned Gray's warm smile as they continued to run from the army.

She was really going to join Fairy Tail.

...

**A/N: well not really much to say about this chapter. I was originally planning to have Natsu appear in this chapter but I was already over 3,000 words with the whole Hargeon part so we'll have to wait until next time to see where he's been. **

**Anyway, review and tell me what you think :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Fairy Tails and Rendezvous

Date: July 7th, X784

Location: Magnolia

After escaping the army, Gray and Lucy had left the city borders of Hargeon, the flames of the crashing ship and ice covering the port left in their wake. Magnolia was but a half a day's walk away, so they decided to avoid boarding a train so they didn't attract any unwanted attention.

Gray seemed to be a little irritated during the whole trip back, so Lucy didn't bother to ask him too much about his mood. He kept muttering words about the fake Salamander, and Happy explained that Gray was probably upset about not being able to find their friend. Of course, Gray vehemently denied that the person they were looking for was their friend, instead opting to call him a flame-brained bastard.

Anyway, the trio had stopped at a two story building overlooking the sea behind Magnolia, Lucy taking in the majestic air that surrounded the building. She stared up at the flag hung above the double doors, the crest that she came to know all those years ago as the Fairy Tail mark. "Well, this is it" Gray said to her as he opened the doors, storming into the guild hall. Lucy and Happy followed on his tail. "I'm back" he hollered.

"Oh, that's lovely. How did it go" a voice called from behind the bar. The voice, Lucy recognized, belonged to one Mirajane Strauss, also known as one of her idols. Lucy had a quick fangirl moment before she walked up to the bar while trying to compose herself, taking deep breaths in and out.

"You okay Lucy? I think you're going crazy.." Happy said to her.

"Shut it cat" Lucy snapped at him.

Gray, ignoring the banter, continued toward Mirajane. "No good, the rumor was a crock of shit. It was some fake guy using his name to lure girls onto his boat for some slave trade thing" he explained to her.

Mira sighed. "I just hope that the worst hasn't happened to him."

"Don't worry Mira, this is Natsu we're talking about. He's gotta be okay" Happy reassured the sad woman.

Gray then perked up. "The trip wasn't a complete waste though. We met a talented wizard who wants to join the guild. She helped me out in dealimg with those slave traders quite a bit."

Mirajane looked at Lucy and smiled. "Well we'll have to wait for the master to get back but I don't think he'll have a problem with it." Mira then let a smirk show on her face. "Besides, Sorcerer Weekly has been bugging me to do a partner shoot with ome of the other wizards from our guild and she looks perfect for the job."

Lucy's jaw dropped at the statement. "You really mean that?"

"Of course silly!"

Just then a man with big buck teeth came walking up to Gray. "Was that rumor I heard right?"

Gray's eye twitched "That was just a rumor?"

"Well of course it was just a rumor. If Salamander was truly in Hargeon then I'm sure-" he didn't get to finish his sentence as Gray sent him flying into the wall opposite of the hall.

This action became the spark that sent into action what Lucy would come to know as a classic Fairy Tail guild brawl. Chairs, tables, mugs, and pretty much anything else in the hall became a projectile object use to knock each other out. Lucy watched as the guild hall was torn apart. "Is it always like this?"

Mirajane smiled again "Pretty much. Everyone here is very enthusiastic and always trying to prove who's the strongest." Mira and Lucy watched the brawl happen before a table came flying across the room at them, effectively knocking out the white haired beauty. "Besides, it's all in good fun" she said as she passed out on the floor.

Lucy sweatdropped as she continued to watch the antics of the guild. Gray strolled up to her as she was in a trance after watching the scene unfold in front of her. She then took notice that the man was completely naked. "Hey Lucy, since I was nice enough to bring you to Fairy Tail, do you think you could do me a solid and lend me your underwear?"

Lucy proceeded to kick the man across the hall. "PERVERT!"

The brawl went on for about five more seconds before the absolute titan of a man that was known as the guild's master made his way into the hall, stomping on the incapacitated ice wizard as he did so. "WHAT DO YOU BRATS THINK YOU'RE DOING?" The guild immediately fell silent and the giant master's eyes fell on Lucy, who's jaw was now against the floor. "Well well, it seems we have a new recruit" he said as he shrank back to his normal size, which could hardly be called normal. The dwarf of an old man waved his hand at her in greeting. "I'm Makarov and I'm the guild master here. Welcome to Fairy Tail" he said in a cheery voice. He then attempted to jump up onto the railing of the second floor and failed miserably, as the old man smacked his head off of the beam on the ceiling. "You brats have gone and done it again! Elfman, beating up the client that you were supposed to be escorting!"

"He doubted my manliness" he said as he hung his head.

"Loke, do you really have to flirt with every single, young female relative of the council members?"

"Only the cute ones" he murmured.

"Gray! You destroyed seven houses on your last mission when you were supposed to be protecting the town. Not to mention the destruction you caused in Hargeon last night!"

Lucy hung her head at the master's statement, knowing that most of that was actually her fault. "The list goes on and on" the master continued to scold as he waved the stack of papers in his hand as evidence. "However" he started again as he burned the stack of papers in his hand. "Anything that surpasses reason must be born from reason. Magic is no different. If you continue to worry about what those blowhards from the council think then your magic will never grow. So I say damn the council! Become strong by practicing your magic in your own way, and treasure the friendships that you have, as that is the Fairy Tail way!" The end of the master's speech caused an uproar of cheering in the guild hall.

Lucy couldn't believe it. Master Makarov had just flat out told the members to ignore the words of the council. 'I guess the rumors about Fairy Tail really were true.'

"Come on" Mira, who was now fully conscious, tugged on Lucy's arm. "Let's get you all taken care of now that that's over."

...

Date: July 7th, X784

Location: Unknown

Natsu let out a huff as he strained against the cuffs that bound his wrists to the wall. Hungry and tired, he strained against the binds, once again failing. He growled as he couldn't believe the situation he was stuck in.

"Stupid magic sealing cuffs. Why the hell am I tied up again?" Natsu groaned in frustration with his predicament.

Every time he was left alone he was stuck tied up like this. Every time _she _needed to go somewhere he was left hanging like this, with no food of course. He sighed as the mental image of the woman entered his mind. They had been traveling together for two months now, yet she felt the need to randomly dissappear at times.

Like now. Natsu had met her at a bar a while back, maybe a year prior, while trying to gather information for a very difficult job when he met the woman. The woman who was now responsible for his predicament. The two of them quickly hit it off as they stayed together that night, and Natsu would often rendezvous with her under the guise of a mission.

Their secret get togethers often resulted in the two stripping each other's clothes off and ravishing each other's bodies, something Natsu was clueless about until he met her. Who knew getting naked with a girl and spending five or six hours at a time in a bed could be so fun?

But even that soon got boring for the hot headed dragon slayer, and she had noticed that too. That was what led to him being lured out on a mission by her. Guess he was a lot more gullible than he originally thought.

He took a breath of anticipation as he noticed the lock on the hotel door turning, signaling his companion's return. The dark haired woman stepped through the door and smiled at him.

"You know, I'm getting really sick of you tying me up like this" Natsu said to her.

"Well, I wouldn't want you leaving on me, would I?" Her mischievous grin met his hard gaze.

"You could at least leave some food out for me to get to. I'm starving over here."

"Don't worry, I'll cook us a nice dinner tonight."

"Really?" Natsu's eyes lit up. The woman had cooked all of their meals on the nights they wouldn't go out to eat, and he definitely enjoyed her meals.

"Of course, but I can't have you leaving on me now."

"Oh come on! You know I have to get going back to the guild soon. They probably all think I'm dead by now." He sighed in relief as the woman had finally released the cuffs on him. He walked over to the bed and plopped down on it back first as he stared at the ceiling, the woman he had spent the last two months with sitting next to his body before wrapping her arms around his waist and looking into his eyes.

"But I would miss you so much" she said as he continued to breathe. "Just a couple more days."

"The last time you said a couple more days it turned into a month" he deadpanned.

The girl stared at him in thought for a moment before speaking. "Travel with me until we reach Clover. Then we'll go our separate ways for a while."

Natsu frowned as he was deep in thought for a moment. He sighed and gave into her demands though. "Until we reach Clover. But then I'm going back to Magnolia."

She squeezed her hold on him tighter as she buried her face in his chest. "Just make sure that you come back to me. Promise me."

The man looked at her form sprawled out across his body. He loved her with all his heart, despite her flaws, despite the secrets that she kept from him, despite only being able to see her once in awhile, he would always come back for her. His heart started beating faster as the thoughts raced through his head. He knew he would be able to keep his promise, and so the words left his lips.

"Of course Ultear. I promise."

Ultear buried her head in his chest as she let an evil smirk play on her face, before preparing for the actions the night would bring.

...

**A/N: Well not really much to say here. In case you're all wondering, yes, the main pairings of this story will be GraLu and NaTear. However, it's not going to be centered around the fluff aspect as much so don't expect a whole lot of it. There will be other pairings, however, and possibly harems if they fit into the story.**

**Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think! I love all feedback after all. Have a great night!**


	4. Chapter 4: Dark Guilds Moving

July 10th, X784

Location: Magnolia

"So Lucy, how was your first official job as a Fairy Tail wizard?" Mirajane asked the blond spirit mage.

"Well, Gray had to go and deny the reward we were supposed to get, so we ended up with no money" she sighed.

"Oh, come on Luce" the mage being spoken about walked up behind her and draped an arm over her shoulder. "I already explained that it would've looked bad for the guild to take the reward when we technically didn't complete the job."

Lucy sighed again in defeat. "I know, I know. I'm glad that we were able to help Kaby out. Still though, the two million joule would've been nice."

"Well, the missions we do aren't always about the money, either" Mira declared with a warm smile. "It's good that you two were able to help someone in need."

"Yeah, although I'm still a little worried about those creeps who attacked us on the way into town" Gray muttered. It was something that was weighing on his mind all night. The nature of the attack was just plain weird in his opinion, and he was still curious as to what the 'Lullaby' that the one man mentioned was. "Luckily, Cana was on her way back into town at the same time we were and helped us out."

"She was really strong!" Lucy perked up. "Also, she mentioned someone named Erza coming back. Who's that?" She felt Gray shudder at the mention of her name as Mira began to explain.

"Erza is an S-class mage in the guild, which means she's one of our strongest. She's also the one that keeps Gray and Natsu on a leash when they're trying to destroy the hall."

"Hey, we're not that bad!" Gray shouted defensively. "Besides, it's usually his fault!"

"Gray, your clothes!" Lucy shouted at him. Gray looked down and realized that, yes, he was only wearing his boxers. Gray took off to find the clothes that he lost while Mira giggled. Lucy was curious about this whole S-class ranking that she had been hearing a lot about since she came to the guild, so she decided to ask Mira what it meant.

"Well, Lucy, there are special quests that are posted on the second floor that are only allowed for mages of a certain strength to take. Right now, there are only six mages in the guild that are certified for those missions."

"Only six? I'm guessing that Gray and Cana are two of those, as well as Erza and this Natsu that everyone keeps mentioning?"

"Well, you're right when you say Erza and Natsu are, although Natsu only just reached that level recently. Gray's recent improvement in his training is definitely putting him in the running for the trials, although he has never been selected for the exam before. Cana has been a candidate for a long time, although she has never reached it. That's probably why she's changed so much recently" Mira saddened when she began to talk about Cana.

'Wow, so there are mages more powerful than Gray and Cana even?' Lucy thought. She decided to leave this conversation at that as she attempted to search for another job to take. However, before she made it to the board, the playboy wizard Loke came storming into the guild hall in a panic.

"ERZA'S BACK!"

Everyone in the guild took their places as they feared the wrath of the woman they knew as Titania. Panic was evident on the faces of most of the mages as they scurried to clean up the hall. Lucy sat back down at the bar with Mira as the air was filled with the sounds of heavily armored footsteps. The silhouette of the woman that Lucy had pictured as a monster came into view.

"Ah, welcome back Erza. How was the mission?" Mira asked the woman. Lucy noted that besides the horn that she was carrying over her shoulders, she didn't look very scary.

"It's good to be back, Mira. However," she turned to glare at the rest of the guild hall "I heard some very disturbing things while I was away."

The guild shuddered in anticipation at the berating they were about to receive. "Macao, I heard you failed on a job and had to have Gray come rescue you! You should really be setting a better example for the younger generation!" Macao hung his head in shame as Erza moved on to her next victim. "Gray! Did you really drag an innocent girl into one of your fights that left Hargeon's port in shambles?"

"Sorry" Gray hung his head as well.

"Loke, your playboy antics need to stop reaching into the prominent members of society because it's tarnishing the guild's reputation. Elfman, you couldn't have seriously thought it was a good idea to beat up a client? And Wakaba, will you quit that filthy habit. I'm sick of the guild smelling like smoke every time I come back." She then turned her attention to the bar, where her gaze met Lucy's. "And who are you?"

Lucy instantly yelped in fear. "I'm Lucy. I just recently joined" she sputtered out so quickly that most members had a hard time understanding her. Erza nodded her head at the woman.

"Well, it's good to have a new face around here. I'm Erza. Erza Scarlet" the red haired woman extended her armored hand and shook hands with the celestial mage. "Mira, has there been any word from Natsu yet?"

The barmaid shook her head. "Not so far. The lead we had from a week ago turned out to be a dead end."

"I see. Is Cana here then?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What do you want?" she asked in a somewhat harsh tone.

Erza gazed at her for a moment. "I heard some rumors while I was on my way back that have me worried. There's a dark guild that had shown a lot of activity recently and it sounds like they're planning something big. I was hoping to ask for both your and Natsu's assistance in dealing with the matter. However, since he still hasn't returned, Gray, would you be willing to help as well?"

Gray gave her a cold glare at being Natsu's replacement, but agreed nontheless. After all, he wasn't stupid enough to defy Erza no matter how bad she pissed him off. Cana just gave her a nod of approval, figuring that beating up on some dark mages would be good training. "Good, then I will see you at the train station in two hours. I will explain everything then" she said as she took off to her dorm.

Once the guild had returned to normal, Mira spoke to Lucy. "You should go with them too."

"WHAT? Are you crazy?" Lucy looked mortified at going to battle with a bunch of dark wizards so soon.

"Oh come on, don't sell yourself short. In that time you helped stop a slave trading ring, took down a corrupt politician, and helped save one of your fellow guild members from a monster. Plus, you and Gray make a great team" she winked at Lucy.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Mira just smirked at the question.

...

"So this is Clover then?" Natsu asked as the couple walked into the village holding hands under the bright afternoon sun. "Quite a ways we've been traveling so far then if we're this close to home."

Ultear nodded as they continued. "Yes, just think, we've been all the way to Bellum and back in these two months. It's a shame we can't keep going" she muttered to the dragon slayer. Natsu pulled her closer to him.

"You could always join Fairy Tail. Then I would get to see you every day." Natsu smiled but he knew she wouldn't agree. She never did, always saying that she had some prior obligations or a job that she had to take care of. Often, he would catch her only half paying attention to her surroundings for hours at a time as she would send a thought projection out somewhere to take care of a meeting of some sort. Natsu never asked what she was doing, however curious he may have been.

True to his assumption, the dark haired woman said nothing. She bit her bottom lip like she was trying to think of a reply that would make Natsu happy, but she said nothing. Luckily for her, the dragon slayer changed the subject. "Isn't the guild master conference going on in this town right now?"

Ultear thought for a moment before replying "Yes, I believe so. Why do you ask?"

Natsu bore a face-splitting grin. "Cause then I can go see Master Makarov."

'Shit' Ultear thought to herself, not wanting to show her face in front of the wizard saint, or any of the guild masters for that matter, as she was sure they all knew she was a member of the council. 'Still, none of them know my true identity at least. I just hope Natsu doesn't react terribly to hearing the news. Of course he has been really respectful of my privacy so far. Of course, I know that he lo-'

"-tear. Ultear?"

"Gah. Sorry, I zoned out for a minute. What were you saying?" Natsu just smiled at her, ignoring the woman's indignation at the situation. "I asked if you wanted to go crash the guild master's meeting?"

Ultear couldn't think of a good reason to turn down the offer to go with Natsu to the conference, so she agreed to accompany him. Besides, it might work in her favor if Natsu learned that she was actually a member of the council down the road.

The walk to the conference hall was made in a comfortable silence. Occasionally, one of the two would comment on something they had seen, pointing it out to the other as Natsu continued to hold her close. Eventually, a large building came into view as they recognized the hall where the meetings were held. "Well, here we are" an excited Natsu said to Ultear as they entered the hall.

Once inside, Natsu relied on his nose more than his eyes to seek out the master. The cheers and cries of masters and prominent wizards that the masters had chosen to accompany them and the smell of booze filled the air. Natsu made his way to the center of the room to where the Fairy Tail master was, along with masters of other guilds. "Aye! Master!" Natsu called out to the short old man. Said man turned around to face him.

"Natsu? Councilor Ultear?" Makarov looked at the two, clearly stunned that they had shown up. "What are you brats doing here?"

"Councilor?" Natsu gazed at the woman who was next to her. "You're a member of the council? Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

Ultear remained silent under Natsu's hard stare. "Look what you did, Makarov. You started a lovers quarrel" an old man who was heavily adorned with makeup and wearing very feminine clothing.

Natsu just shook his head at the onlookers and decided he would deal with the situation with her later. Right now he wanted to catch up with the master from the guild he called home. Which, was not going so well at the moment.

"Lovers quarrel? You mean to tell me we haven't heard a word from you in two months because you've been touring the countryside with some girl? Everyone back at the guild was worried that you were dead! Do you know how much trouble you're in you damn brat?" Makarov began wheezing as he took a drink out of his tankard of beer.

"You're gonna have a heart attack if you keep shouting like that" the man known as Goldmine tried to calm the old man.

"You remember what it was like to be young, don't you. Although it is a shame that a cute man like that has to mess around with the women" Master Bob said, causing Natsu to shudder at the thought and Ultear to pull him closer to her while giving a possessive glare.

"Message for Master Makarov!" A young blond girl came running up to Makarov holding a magic envelope. She handed it to him and took off as Makarov opened the letter and was greeted by the beautiful sight of Mirajane Strauss.

"Oho, you all see that? That's our guild's cover girl" he said as all the men gave the hologram lecherous stares.

"I haven't seen Mira in a long time" Natsu smiled as he began to listen to the message. Ultear gave the hologram a harsh glare, not liking the look that Natsu was giving the woman.

"All of our women look just like her. Even this new girl that we got" Makarov continued to boast to the other guild masters.

"Cool, we got a new member! I can't wait to meet her!" If it was possible, Ultear's glare hardened even more as the message started to play.

"Hi Master! Hope the guild master's conference is going well. Just wanted to let you know that Erza made it back safely, although we still haven't heard from Natsu yet." At that, Makarov turned and glared at the dragon slayer, who sheepishly grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Erza said she heard some things while she was out, and so she's headed out to investigate along with Gray and Cana."

Makarov spit out his beer. "Those three are working together? Dear lord they're gonna destroy a town."

"Looks like you better start saving up your money for more repair funds" Goldmine joked.

"Oh, and I also convinced that new girl Lucy to go with them. Her and Gray make such a great team after all."

"The one who destroyed Hargeon?" Makarov shouted.

"Anyway, they should be back either tonight or tomorrow, so I'll end this message now. Just wanted to let you know all is well." With that, the hologram of Mirajane faded and the message ended. Makarov ended up curled up on the table in a fetal position, seeing all the dollars fade away. "He may just end up having that heart attack after all" the masters all joked.

Natsu was laughing along with the rest of them until Ultear pulled him out of the hall. They made their way down the street before Ultear stopped at a park. "What has you so worried all of a sudden?" Natsu asked.

Ultear bit her lip. "I'm just curious as to why all your guild mates are making their way over here. Whatever that Erza woman heard must've been big news if your guild's strongest wizards are up in arms and going out to investigate."

Natsu crossed his arms for a moment. "Well, since the guild masters are here let's go rent a room at the inn and wait until we hear more about what's going on. Besides, we need to talk anyway" Natsu said, referring to the revelation that Ultear is a member of the magic council.

...

**A/N: Well, this is the start of the Eisenwald/Lullaby arc. Just in case anyone is wondering, the missions with Lucy happen the exact same way, just with Gray there instead of Natsu. Hopefully I'll be able to push through this arc in one or two chapters without making it feel rushed, as I really want to get to the later arcs of the story.**

**Also, I have my computer back now, so I should be able to update a lot faster than before! Anyway, please leave a review, I love reading what you all have to say!**


	5. Chapter 5: Eisenwald

**Warning: Sexual content in this chapter.**

**...**

"Okay, so what exactly are we looking to investigate here?" Gray asked the armored mage as they situated themselves in the compartment of the train. He slumped against the back of the seat with Cana next to him as she spoke next.

"Really, cause I'm going to be pissed off if you're leading us on some sort of wild goose chase here. This seriously just sounds like a waste of time to me since you haven't explained anything yet." Erza let out a sigh at the girl's words before she began her explanation.

"We're heading toward Kunugi station, where we will attempt to retrieve some information on the dark guild Eisenwald."

"Dark guild? Mira said something about those were the ones that are always involved in illegal activities" Lucy was shocked that she got roped into such a dangerous quest so soon.

"Really Scarlet? And what makes you think they're going to pull anything?"

"Will you let her talk?" Gray was shouting, half pissed off that Cana was being so rude and, quite frankly, a bitch (of course he didn't want to say that to her face), while the other voice in his head was telling him to calm her down before Erza got pissed and went on a rampage.

Silence filled the train car again before Cana spoke. "Well, go on!" Erza took a deep breath and let out a sigh before beginning her story.

"I was on my way back to Magnolia when I decided to stop at a bar and buy myself a drink and some strawberry cake." Cana rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'Titania the fatass', along with some sort of comment about how she can already tell that this story is a crock of shit, but Erza paid her no mind.

...

_"Why are you so slow? Where the hell is my beer at!"_

_"Will you calm down?"_

_"Seriously Beard, why are you so irritated?"_

_"Why am I so irritated? Of course I'm irritated! We finally found the hidden Lullaby and it's all sealed up and shit. And now time that we could've spent looking for a way to break the seal we're spending here because some little bitch can't bring us our damn booze!"_

_Erza had been sitting at the bar ten feet away nibbling on strawberry cake and drinking a glass of wine while she eavesdropped on the conversation. Figuring them to just be another group of belligerent drunks, she was going to blow the conversation off as nothing, but the Lullaby that they mentioned and the fact that it was sealed magic had piqued her interest._

_The men had gone about trying to cover up what they said, hushing whispers back and forth to each other. "You're being extremely loud right now, you need to shut up."_

_That was when she heard the man with the ponytail speak. "You know, we don't need all of us to break the seal."_

_"Huh?"_

_"Don't worry about it. I can take care of it. Just let Erigor know that I'll come back here with Lullaby in three days, and then we can put our plan into motion."_

_..._

"Lullaby? Isn't that what those people who attacked us on our way back to Magnolia were after?" Lucy asked, her question mostly directed at Gray. Said pervert simply nodded his head, before Lucy's voice reached his ears. "Really Gray? Where's your clothes?" As Gray scurried around the car to gather his clothes, Lucy asked Erza "So what kind of magic do you think it is?"

"I have no idea, but given the fact that it's a sealed magic it is probably very powerful."

Cana scoffed at her. "You know, all this sounds like a bunch of crap still. Lullaby? Seriously? It sounds like a fucking child's toy. And even if this is a real thing that they're going after, how do you know they're dark mages? They could just be going on a job too, but they have big bad Titania pointing fingers over-"

"That's enough Cana!" Gray shouted. "Seriously, what the hell is your problem? You've been acting really weird for this whole trip so far."

"My problem? Sorry if I don't like having my time wasted on a wild goose chase" she spat.

"Still, that gives you no excuse to act-"

"Will you two shut the hell up!" Erza shouted.

"Aye sir" Gray did an impression of Happy (who was laughing hysterically) while Cana just crossed her arms and stared out the window.

"I don't blame you for being skeptical, Cana. I thought the same way you did at first. Until I remembered the name Erigor."

"Erigor?" Happy asked.

"Yes, he is known as Shinigami Erigor, the ace of the Eisenwald guild" Erza explained.

"He is a wizard who became famous by taking many assassination requests, and when the council outlawed assassination requests from being taken by the magic guilds, Eisenwald chose the money and was ousted from the alliance."

Lucy frowned. "But wouldn't the council have punished them then?"

"They were punished. The guild was ordered to disband and the master was imprisoned. I guess some of their members decided to remain active though." Erza shook her head. "It was a mistake on my part. If I would've known who they really were" her face darkened as she continued to speak "I would've put them all in a blood offering. Anyway," her face now returned to normal as she spoke "this is our stop."

"Yeah, you guys have fun with that. I'm going back to Magnolia" Cana said to them as she sat in her seat.

Gray stared at her as she refused to budge. Erza spoke "If that is what you desire, then fine. We can't make you do anything. Have a safe trip back" and she was gone, the clinking of her armor fading out into the distance. Lucy, not really sure what to say, silently followed Erza off the train. Gray stayed behind for a minute. "What?" the brunette snapped.

"You care to tell me what's going on, since now it's just the two of us?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been acting weird for a long time now, but you've never been this harsh before. What happened to you?"

"Like you would care" she muttered softly.

"What do you mean 'like I would care'? I care about you just like I care about everyone in Fairy Tail!"

"Maybe that's the problem" Cana muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just go." The woman was now doing everything in her power to hold back her tears. She'd be damned if anyone would see her in such a pitiful state.

Gray turned and silently walked toward the door of the car. "You owe me an explanation when we get back." With that, he was gone.

Cana brought her legs up to her chest and buried her face in them. The tears were flowing freely now. 'Gray, you're the only person left in Fairy Tail that I trust. Please, don't let anything change that.'

"Excuse me miss, is this seat taken?"

...

"Why would you keep something like that from me? Do you not trust me?" Natsu was glaring daggers at the moment, which were directed toward the time mage.

"Natsu, I thought that if you knew then it would put you in danger" Ultear lied through her teeth. However, her gaze couldn't help but soften when the next statement left her lips. "I wouldn't want to see anything bad happen to you" she said softly as she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Natsu let out a sigh and inhaled the scent of Ultear's hair as he held her close. He pushed his wondering about her other secrets to the back of his mind for the time being, as there was still the issue of what happened to cause such a ruckus at Fairy Tail. "So, do we go looking for my friends or do we wait here?"

"It's a shame that Mira girl didn't say anything about where they were going exactly. Although I thought I heard someone say something about dark guilds were a lot more active in that area, and it's not far from here at all."

"That still doesn't answer my question, do we stay or go?"

Ultear smirked. "Well" she said in a sultry voice as she walked over to the door and locked it "if we decide to stay, I know a way to kill some time."

The dark haired woman shoved the dragon slayer on the bed as she began to undo the kimono that covered her figure. Once she had stripped down to a lacy set of bra and panties, black with a sapphire blue stiching on both, she climbed on top of the pink haired dragon slayer and began to nip at his ear before trailing kisses down his neck. Natsu quickly had the scarf unraveled and wiggled his waistcoat off. Ultear's kisses reached Natsu's collarbone before she began to run her tongue across his chest.

Natsu let out a soft groan of pleasure as the woman worked her magic with her tongue across his body. He looked down to her smirking face, her eyes staring right into his as she made every motion with her tongue. Eventually, Ultear reached Natsu's waistline and began to admire the bulge that was clearly visible through his white trousers.

She started to tease the man, letting her hot breath vent through the thin material and stimulating his manhood as she ever so slowly began to unbutton his trousers. She began to pull at the material covering the massive bulge in order to reveal Natsu's manhood. Ultear gave him a teasing smirk as she began to stroke it with her hand, making Natsu almost fully hard.

While his erection was still growing to full length, Ultear took his still semi-hard manhood into her mouth and allowed it to grow inside of her. She stroked his organ a couple of times with her mouth, allowing her saliva to cover it, before she continued to stroke it with her hand. She brought the tip of his penis to her mouth and began to trace many shapes on the tip with her tongue, eliciting moans of pleasure from Natsu.

Natsu was in an absolute daze of ecstasy from the work Ultear was doing on him. As she withdrew her tongue from his head and began to throat his manhood more, he began to moan longer and louder. He could feel himself on the verge of cuming as Ultear continued to stroke.

"Natsu my boy, you in there?" Makarov's voice came through the room.

"OOWWWWW!"

"SHIT NATSU! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Is everything alright in there?" Makarov asked again.

"Y-yeah, be right there" Ultear's panicked as she clumsily threw her kimono back on and threw one of the comforters off the bed over top of Natsu's semi-naked form that was currently sprawled out on the floor. She raced to the door and yanked it open, not realizing that the top half of her body was still only covered by a bra, fully visible to the lecherous Fairy Tail master.

Makarov pinched his nose while pointing to Ultear's clevage, something she noticed and immediately fixed. The old man's eyes then drifted to the dragon slayer on the ground letting out omans that indicated he was in severe pain. Ultear's face began to heat up hotter than Natsu's flames from the embarrassment. 20 different shades of red? Way more. Redder than Erza's hair? Most definitely. The very definition of the color? Perhaps that's a fitting description.

Makarov sighed and scratched the bridge of his nose. "Ah, what I wouldn't give to be young again" he muttered before clearing his throat. Resisting the urge to ask what had happened to Natsu (trust me, if it's not obvious then you REALLY don't wanna know), he spoke to Ultear. "Master Bob believes he may know what the reason for my mages to be in such a fuss is. However, I'd like to talk to you and Natsu regarding our plan of action." Another loud groan of pain erupted from Natsu. "Of course, I could give you two a little bit more time."

...

"So what's the plan then, just locate Eisenwald and then bust them up a little bit?" Gray asked with a smirk growing on his face.

"That's just the thought I was having" Erza agreed. "If they don't wanna talk, beat the answers out of them."

"Jeez, are all the mages of Fairy Tail really as destructive as you two?" Lucy asked.

"Aye sir. Especially Natsu." Happy answered Lucy's question.

"Hey, don't compare me to that ash for brains prick, cat!" Gray hollered, causing Lucy to giggle. Erza however, was not as thrilled with Gray's banter with Natsu's flying feline.

"Alright, enough! We're here to locate Eisenwald, remember?" Erza stated firmly, gaining Gray and Lucy's undivided attention. While the three were gathering their wits and debating where to check first, a little girl with brown hair and eyes wearing a plain yellow dress slowly approached them. "Excuse me, did you say you were looking for Eisenwald? You're not with them, are you?"

Lucy smiled at the little girl reassuringly. "Of course not. We just heard some rumors that they were up to something bad so we came to investigate. We're from Fairy Tail, see" she said, showing her the guild mark on her hand.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good, cause my daddy was getting on the train, and after he got on I heard a bunch of weird looking guys get on after and say they were with Eisenwald. They looked creepy and smelt like booze."

The three mages looked back and forth to each other. "Eisenwald is on the train?" Lucy asked in a panicked tone.

"So is Cana" Gray muttered.

Erza looked at both of them. "We have to stop that train."

...

"You know, it's really rude to ignore someone when they're trying to make friendly conversation with you" Kageyama said to Cana, who was still balled up on the seat. Kageyama tried to pull Cana's legs down so he could look at her when he noticed the guild stamp on her stomach. "So you're a member of a regular guild, huh? I envy you" he said with a smirk.

His words and actions still failed to stimulate much of a reaction from Cana, so he tried a different approach. "You really are beautiful, you know that? I shouldn't be surprised though, since you're from Fairy Tail. I hear your guild had lots of beautiful women in it. Quite a shame, really. I really think you all should share, seeing as there are no women in my guild."

Cana still didn't respond to any of Kage's words, still too caught up in her thoughts to really give a damn about the crap he was spewing. So he stood up over top of her. "You know what we like to call Fairy Tail in my guild? Flies. And I think it's time for me to do some fly swatting" he said as he raised his hand back to smack her.

Cana, seeing what was about to happen, quickly braced herself and ducked under his swing before kicking him in the gut. "Don't touch me you fucking creep!"

The impact from Cana's kick caused the man to drop the bag he was holding and some of the contents to spill out, including a wooden flute with a three eyed skull at the top of it. "So you saw the Lullaby now, huh?"

'The Lullaby?' Cana thought as she continued to stare at the flute. 'Don't tell me-'

But she never finished her thought as a fist came out of the shadow and punched her right in the jaw. Standing up, she saw the crazed look in the eye of the man across from her. She tasted blood in her mouth as several more shadow appendages struck her in several places, mostly aiming for her body. Looking up from the ground, she saw him coming toward her with intent to kill.

"You shouldn't have picked a fight with Eisenwald."

...

**A/N: well that took way longer than I thought it would to write. I hope to be done with Eisenwald in two more chapters, but given the length of this one it could stretch out to three or four.**

**Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think, whether you love it, hate it, or have a critique. Thanks for reading!**

**Oh, and special shoutout to author _Natsu Is Awesome_ for letting me bounce ideas off of them for this story, and giving me a couple to use!**


	6. Chapter 6

"You want us to what? Are you out of your fucking mind Master Makarov?" Ultear couldn't believe the words that just left this man's mouth.

Natsu had a hard stare on his face as he looked toward his guild master. "I trust you Gramps, but do you really think the best course of action is to stop our own friends?"

Makarov let out a groan as he continued. "The collateral damage that will ensue from our members fighting the dark guild all the way here is something I don't even want to think about. Besides, with most of the region's guild masters here, I seriously doubt we'll have a problem crushing them."

Natsu raised an eyebrow in confusion as Ultear continued to speak. "I don't understand though; what makes you so sure that they're coming here?"

"Blue Pegasus. Bob has a couple of wizards in his ranks that are very good at getting information. He has a highly skilled archive user by the name of Hibiki Lates, and whatever information that he can't get his hands on, Jenny Rearlight uses her womanly charms to seduce secrets out of men. They make quite the spy team."

"Okay, so what did they tell you?" Ultear asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Lullaby" Makarov said simply.

"But that's one of Zeref's living magics!" Ultear shouted.

Natsu looked confused "Zerals what now?" he asked, earning him a smack on the back of his head.

"Zeref. He's the most powerful dark mage in history, and his magics have been banned from use because of that" Ultear explained, becoming slightly more excited when she spoke of Zeref.

"And you wanna let a bunch of dark guild creeps just walk in here with something like that?" Natsu asked. "What the hell does this Lullaby thing even do?"

"According to Hibiki, it's a death curse-"

"A death curse!"

"Calm down brat!" Makarov let out yet another exasperated sigh. "Like I said, we are more than capable of protecting ourselves here. That's why I want you two to go stop your friends before they cause too much damage."

"No way in hell Gramps! If I leave then I'm joining the fight against them. And you know how much shit I can destroy when I'm all fired up!" Natsu grinned and brought his hand up in flames.

"I'll go alone then." Ultear said.

"What? Ul, are you-"

"How many times have I said not to call me that?" Ultear asked in a low growl, chilling the air in the room to a point where even Natsu shivered.

"S-sorry" he stuttered before regaining his composure. "But seriously, you think you can handle all of them."

Ultear smirked. "No offense toward your guildmates, but I'm not a member of the magic council for nothing."

Natsu smiled. "Alright then, when are we leaving?"

"You don't listen to me at all, do you?" Natsu's blank stare was enough to answer her question. "I said I was going alone. You're better off staying here in case the worst happens."

Makarov intergected before Natsu could argue. "You said it yourself, you're the most destructive mage we have." Natsu looked like he wanted to argue, but Ultear slammed her hand over his mouth before he could. "Ultear can take care of herself."

"Relax Natsu. I'll be fine." Natsu just stood there as Ultear placed a quick kiss on his lips. His only reaction was a slight grunt of dissapproval as he watched her leave.

"I have a bad feeling about this master."

...

Once Ultear was out of the city limits, she pulled out her communication lacrima. "Where the hell have you been Ultear?" the man's voice came through.

"Sorry, Siegrain. I've been caught up in a mission with Fairy Tail over in Clover for the time being."

"What are you doing hanging out with them? Are you still screwing around with that Dragneel punk?"

"I wouldn't call him a punk now. I'd say he could be pretty useful to our plans in the long run."

"You think so, huh?" Siegrain spat at the suggestion. "I don't need anyone's help in reviving Zeref. I have my willing slaves here, after all, and the prospect of a free world is a hard temptation to resist."

Ultear could practically hear the smirk on her fellow councilor's face. She had to put him in his place. "I don't think all your slaves are exactly on board with your plan. There's that man Simon who could pose a threat."

Siegrain barked out a laugh at the suggestion. "You must be jesting me, Ultear. Simon, a threat? Hahaha. Even if he isn't in complete agreement with my plans, and even if he is able to rally my little slaves into an uprising, I'm sure he'll agree no problem once he hears what I have planned with 'her'."

"I see" Ultear said before letting out a defeated sigh. "Have you contacted Vastia yet?"

"Yes. Be on Galuna Island in two weeks time. I'll leave the resurrection of Deliora to you."

"Then I'll leave the tower to you for now as well. I'll report back to the council before I go there. For now, I still have something else I need taken care of." And with that exchange done, Ultear cut the transmission. "Arrogant bastard" she muttered under her breath. She then turned toward the horizon.

'Stop Fairy Tail, huh Makarov. Who'd you say was coming? The new girl, that card user, that Scarlet girl Jellal is so obsessed with, and Fullbuster?' Ultear laughed at the mages as she pictured them in her head. "What a joke."

...

Cana cried out in pain as she hit the floor of the train. Several lacerations lined her stomach and arms as Kageyama continued to assault her with his shadow magic. He smirked at her as she began to cough up blood. "Lucky I left your pretty little face intact at least" he laughed as he began to kick her in the gut.

The brunette was helpless to fight back due to her broken ribs. "Are all legal guild wizards as pathetic as you? This wasn't even fun."

A man with white hair and many tattoos carrying a large scythe stepped into the compartment. "Are you done playing with that bug yet? You're making quite a racket" he said as he walked into the room, most of the guild's members following their ace.

"Ah, Erigor. I was just finishing up here" he said as he grabbed Cana by her throat and hoisted her up in the air. "Too bad this Fairy doesn't have wings to fly" he cackled as he threw the woman through the train window, glass shattering as she sailed through it.

The first thing she felt was the glass stabbing the skin in her back. The warm, bleeding sensation spread over her form as she felt the air rush against her back. The next was a pair of strong arms wrapping around her waist, slamming her into a man's chest and consequently, onto the roof of a moving vehicle.

"Are you okay Cana?" Gray asked as the vehicle came to a screeching halt.

"Gray? Is that yo-" she never finished her thought as she passed out from the excessive blood loss. Gray quickly jumped down from the roof and began to seal her wounds with ice. Erza quickly wrapped bandages around her torso, covering most of her exposed wounds to hold the ice in place.

Erza quickly jumped in the driver's seat and took off once they had Cana secured in the backseat. Gray had to hold Cana tight in his arms to keep her from bouncing around and reaggravating her injuries due to Erza's rough driving.

'Erza Scarlet, proof that women are bad drivers'** Gray bitterly thought as he held the injured girl. Of course, he would never openly insult Erza. Never in their right mind would anyone openly insult Erza.

"That..skull..flute" Cana spoke in her sleep. "Three..eyed..skull." She groggily awoke to try and tell them what she saw.

Lucy sat with a horrified look on her face. "That can't be. It's only a tall tale." She said this mostly to herself.

"Tall tale? What are you talking about Lucy?" Gray asked.

"It's death magic." Gray and Erza both looked at her shocked, so Lucy continued. "It's a form of mass curse murder magic, that causes anyone who hears its song to die. But I never thought it existed until now."

"This is bad. What could they be planning with something like that?" Erza voiced out as she continued to speed along the train tracks.

"And why would they hijack a train of all things? It seems kind of inconvenient since it can only travel along the tracks" Lucy added.

"But it has a lot of speed." Lucy frowned.

"What do you mean Gray?"

"I mean that it's actually very convenient if their destination is somewhere along the tracks or close by. And with all the effort they put in to using one of Zeref's magics, I seriously doubt that they went into this thing blind. They have to have a plan, and right now we don't know what it is."

The group fell silent for a moment before the cat spoke up. "Speaking of not knowing, I have something to tell you Lucy."

"And that made you think of me why?" Lucy had a very distint tick mark appear on her head.

"Because I forgot what it was" Happy said with a cheeky smile. "Let's see. Lucy? Fish?"

"I am not a fish" Lucy growled.

"Lucy? Heavy?"

"I AM NOT HEAVY!"

"Lucy? Weirdo?"

"WEIRDO? YOU'RE A FLYING BLUE CAT! THAT CAN TALK! AND I'M THE WEIRD ONE?"

"Will you two shut up?" Cana stirred from her slumber again and proceeded to try and sit up, only to realize Gray's arms were still around her. A problem that she quickly corrected. "PERVERT!"

"What? I wasn't doing anything?"

"You were groping me in my sleep!" Cana began smacking his arms away.

"You looked injured. I was trying to keep you safe from Erza's bad driving-"

"What did you say, Gray?" Erza had turned around and emitted a deathly aura, consequently taking her eyes off the path in front of her. The car strayed from the tracks and began to run through bushes, a brush pile, over a downed tree, and hit a cat before she corrected herself and resumed driving on the tracks. Gray exhaled after the four wheeler corrected its course.

"Nothing. Not a damn thing." He stared at the driving redhead for a minute before he realized how fast she was driving. "Your SE plug is inflating you know."

"I don't care" she said simply. "People will die if we don't hurry. I'll deal with the consequences of the magical drain later if it means saving lives now."

"Wow, Erza is very strong" Lucy muttered softly.

"Aye" Happy agreed "She's the strongest female wizard in Fairy Tail."

...

Erza was panting as they pulled into Oshibana, the four wizards and the cat bailing out and heading toward the station. The station was surrounded by a chaotic mob as they could see military officers at the entrance keeping everyone out.

"Coming through. 'Scuse me. Coming through." Erza pushed people out of her way to make it through to the entrance; Gray, Cana, and Lucy heeling right behind her and Happy flying overhead. She pushed right past the military standing guard, their cries that they couldn't enter falling on deaf ears.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail" Lucy quickly flashed her guild mark and proceeded with the rest of her team. Upon entering the station, the five were greeted with the sight of an entire knocked out military regimen. "They knocked all of them out?" Lucy gaped. Erza spoke up.

"Of course, you can't really expect the military to stand against an entire magical guild. I'm surprised most of them are even breathing."

"So you fairies showed up after all. Heh heh" the tattooed man known as Erigor laughed as he stood behind his guild.

"Time to swat some flies?" a man dressed in garbs that made him resemble a mummy pipe up.

"I'll leave the fly swatting to you guys. Rayule. Kageyama. Let's execute the next part of our plan." Gray's glare toward the reaper hardened.

"The next part of your plan?"

A smirk played on the Eisenwald wizards' faces. "I thought that you flies would be smarter than this. But since you're not, let me spell it out for you. What's something all train stations have?"

The wizards looked around for a moment and Erza's eyes landed on one of the PA speakers. "Don't tell me" her face twisted from confusion to pure rage "you plan to broadcast the Lullaby!"

Erigor smirked and jumped out the window, while Rayule and Kageyama made their way up the stairs. "Lucy, stay with me. Gray, Cana, go after them!" She summoned a sword from her requip space and held it out in front of her. "Looks like we have a fight on our hands."

...

Ultear stood alone on the tracks leading from Clover, the winds blowing through the canyon messing her hair. Watching the scene from the train station unfold through her lacrima, she smirked at the events about to unfold. 'Lullaby won't work. That much is certain. However, who's to say that I'm not allowed to have a little fun?'

**A/N: First of all ** NO I DON'T THINK ALL WOMEN ARE BAD DRIVERS PLEASE DON'T HIT ME! Ahem. Anyway, for the fight scenes, would you guys like me to put in OSTs for the fight scenes from here on out? I didn't know if that would be a good idea, as I wouldn't exclusively use Fairy Tail soundtracks either. **

**I'm planning for two more chapters in this arc, then I really get to the good stuff. Also, I know that I said this may become a harem, but I have decided against it. I'm gonna put a poll up down the road to see who Gray will endgame with though (there'll be four choices), obviously there's Natsu x Ultear, planning for Gajeel x Levy as well.**

**Anyway, I really appreciate all feedback and ideas as well, so feel free to review ;).**


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